My primary goal for attending college is to be financially fit and also use the knowledge I’ve gained to help underprivileged youth achieve their goals. I come from a poor background where I have struggled to make ends meet. I didn’t receive any scholarships to attend college after high school so I skipped it. The cost of college is a burden that I couldn’t have taken. I used the motivation of when I took time away from school surrounded by people in situations I never wanted to be in.
Returning to college has been an exciting and terrifying decision for me. My husband has encouraged me for 1-2 years, but my fear of failure overwhelmed me and kept me from pursuing my Bachelor’s Degree. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to pursue. I’m now on this journey and ready for whatever it is that God has planned for me. I have worked hard encouraged my three kids as they transitioned their way through elementary school through middle school and on to high school and graduation.
"Don't go straight to graduate school after finishing your undergraduate degree. Work first for a few years", this was what professor Steven Vogel told me in the summer of 2010. He had been one of the most enlightening professors during my exchange program at UC Berkeley in the academic year 2009-2010. I also had had the chance to work with him in a Political Science research project. Following his advice, after finishing my Political Science degree in 2012 and graduating in the top 5% of my class, I embarked on a quest to acquire the most formative professional experiences I could get.
My most significant endeavor since attending community college would be helping my community to receive an Adult Daycare. Thought this endeavorer I have applied my knowledge that I have learned about the disease to educate others in my community who may not have to know the impact of it. I have also used and sought the aid of my relationship that I have built by being at my community college. This Adult Daycare service or Coltrane LIFE center is something that I am passionate about having in my hometown. My grandpa has Alzheimer's and I have seen the stress that tolls on the family and caregiver.
Something such as returning back to school was long gone and in my past goals. After a couple of years I never thought I would end up going back to school since everything that I wanted was going good and according to plan. However sometimes we are faced with tough situations where we must find other resources in order to improve and better ourselves. Going back to school was one of the most important and wise decisions that I have ever made. Finding well-qualified candidates for a job or career nowadays is a challenge, especially in the field that I am currently in; law enforcement.
Being a first generation college student was a big challenge for me. A new life ahead of me had just started, it was like a new book with a new page on it. I started off going to community college which was such a big impact in my life, I was able to learn many valuable things that at the beginning I wasn't prepared for. I want to make a bigger impact not only for my self but for others as well. I want to motivate people that no matter what gets in the way, or the circumstances we are facing, we can all fight for what we want.
When beginning my college search, the three keywords that I based my search on were: Catholic, liberal arts, and California. Each of these aspects holds a great deal of significance to me because I hope to continue my Catholic education and nurture my faith. I also want to focus my studies in the field of education because I aspire to be an elementary school teacher and would like to attend college in-state to be able to visit my family often because they are a very important part of my life. With these aspects in mind, the college search engines gave me extensive lists of colleges, but Saint Mary’s College was always one of the top five matches on the lists and also the one that appeared the most frequently among the different search engines
The decision to return to college to work toward my bachelor 's degree was not an easy one for me. As a mother of three, the loss of not just income, but time, has been substantial. The sacrifice has not been carried only by me, but by my entire family. In making the decision to return to school, I had to weigh the importance and value of a bachelor 's degree against the time and cost that it would require. After careful consideration, prayer, and many conversations with my family, I made the decision to return and attend Kennesaw State University.
When my older sister went off to college, I had never seen a more driven, mature and intelligent 18 year old look so terrified and reluctant to leave her home just a few states away. Caroline had spent the majority of her high school years stressed, angry and tired, holed up in her single room acing more APs than I can count with two hands. My sister knew from the time she could read that success meant getting into an Ivy, even if the price was throwing away all human contact or not. Myself, was not so sure. I had been shaped by a front-row-seat to the 24-hour shows of a hormonal workaholic—years spent listening to crying, yelling, and disturbing silences from upstairs in Caroline’s room taught me that in order to earn a college acceptance,
As a first generation college student, I have the desire to not only make my parents proud of my academic achievements, but to be the first person in my family to receive a college degree. At a very young age, I was always expected to receive A’s and B’s in my school assignments, as well as my final grades. However, I was never rewarded or congratulated whenever I did receive those grades because it was already expected of me to achieve them. Hence, a time in which I have experienced failure but also felt like I let my family down was when I received a D in my Critical Thinking course I was already retaking for the second time. The first time I took Critical Thinking was during the summer in which it was an 8-week long course.
Newton was a town just east of the coast Ceils. The people were nice and friendly, it being a small town everybody knew each other. Maddie, Zach, Cody and Karen are all good friends. But ever since last year Maddie, Zach, Cody, and Karen noticed that the town has been becoming strange. The people were acting weird and bad things kept on happening.
As a child, I had no father to guide me on the path to maturity. Even in the idyllic scene of a father and son playing catch, as I tossed the football onto the roof of my house by myself, the roof replaced the person that I was supposed to learn the essence of manhood from. Although my early and painful realization of his absence was distressing, I learned how to rise above my disappointment and become my own motivation. Throughout my life, I have been knocked down, but I was never defeated–that is what defines me as a fighter. Relentless in achieving my goals, I will myself to succeed despite all that deters me.
I never even got to say goodbye. When my dad left it was the hardest it's ever been for my family and I, and we were never quite the same. After a while I began to fill into my father's shoes. “Aaron, one day you’re going to have to raise a family of your own. You’re a man, you’re going to have to be the provider for the family.”
Attending a college or university can be a pleasurable four years or it can be path of frustration and indecision. I have spent the past year at Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences thinking I wanted to be a doctor. College is expensive and when I started pondering changing my major it just didn’t seem practical. As a second semester sophomore changing my major would potentially mean spending more time in school which in return means more student loans and prolong starting a career. Not only would I be changing my major, I will be changing schools completely.
Kenia Racquelle Bonner One of my biggest accomplishments in life was graduating college with my Bachelor’s Degree. Despite the fact that I 've experienced a terrible separation between my parents, it lead me to become a strong, yet competent individual. At the age of twelve, although I was too young to understand the term "independence" I took on the responsibility. Cooking for my younger siblings, and helping around the house while my mother worked endless hours to provide for our family. During my childhood, my family was labeled as the "low- income class" trying to make a living out of cans of sardines and crackers.
